Amazingly the trend is for people to search by company/agency name. The keywords for which people search has not changed hardly at all except that home care jobs is now in the top ten and health care is also right at the top, replacing the “home” in home health care.

What does this mean to the agency wanting to get ranked? It means that traditional marketing and branding are increasingly important in addition to using tactics to get higher ranking.

So, how does an agency with a limited budget compete with the large organizations that are spending mega bucks on marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC)? It means that you had better find a way to get your agency name out there in many different ways that are all internet marketing related.  It means that using social media, using strategic internet marketing and having a well designed website are all things that should be in your corporate marketing tool box. It means that back links to your site are also important. It means that you had better be out giving presentations and educating on home care and making certain that your agency is seen as a leader and an expert in home care. Sounds daunting, does it not? Well, the only program that I know of that accomplishes this is the MOST program. Now in its 3^rd year, with over 30 themed complete packages for agencies to use for their corporate marketing, the MOST program delivers content, design and a team of professionals to implement. Give it a look see and ask me for a special deal that we are running through September 15^th.

To register go to www.privatedutyhomecare.org.

Searching for solutions on line is no different. In shopping for a home care solution for a mother, the basics must be present. For home care it is the services, explained clearly and in a layman’s language, and location(s) served. Also good for home care is some personal information about the agency staff, in particular where does the buck stop? Is that person one who drives the staff towards excellence?  A concerned adult child is looking for some assurance that her mother will be cared for in a loving and safe manner. So, the website as the adult child’s first encounter with the world of home care must relate something personal about the agency and its management.

Then that first phone call to the agency, or in some cases, an inquiring email, is the make it or break it moment. If phone, does the person answering have joy and interest in his voice? If email, is the inquiry answered promptly and personally?

Excellence in business is something for which each of us needs to strive. But it is not enough for just the owners or administrators to strive for excellence, all staff must understand that each and every task can be better if each and every task is accompanied by a quest for doing it better each and every day, and always learning what works best and applying more of that the next time. When is the last time you asked yourself or your staff what it is that makes an excellent company? And then benchmark against that as you grow your business. You will know excellence when you experience it, and your customers will tell you, over and over, how much joy it brings them that your team understands and strives for excellence.

Check out our team corecubed, and ask us to do something for you. See if you don’t agree that we have excellence as our goal no matter what the task.

Wikipedia goes on to say that “The Internet has brought media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing in terms of providing instant responses and eliciting responses are the unique qualities of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also often grouped together under internet marketing.”

And, it was if we wrote this about our company, since Wikipedia continues to explain that “Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising, and sales.”

We used to tout that we were interactive marketers, and that also fits in this definition as Wikipedia expands it to “Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along many different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies.”

So how does Wikipedia define “Marketing”? As “the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.”

So one last definition is that of customer relationship management (CRM) as “a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes.

Now I cannot tell you how good it feels this morning, and going into this week to know that we are defined, all on one page as to what we do, and charging forward to continue the good work we have been doing for the last 13 years, but with a definition of what that work is! Go team corecubed. And visit our website to see an example to showcase that we do know internet marketing and are pretty darn good at it!

Fishcar Lobster Conductor

The fishcar’s inventor calls this the Sashimi Tabaernacle Choir, and he travels around the country astounding those who vie for attention at art car functions. And, with all the singing (my favorite was Aquarius from the musical, Hair) and the lighted moving sea life, it is hard not to stop dead in your tracks and admire (?) the workmanship and ingenuity. And he did get some good press while here.

So what is the marketing message? Like wearing a sandwich board or standing on the curb dressed as a chicken the art car makes a statement, gets attention, and makes folks want to know more. In home care, it is hard to take a message from such a frivolous and fun event, but there are things that get attention and make folks want more. Clinics that offer services for free so people can try out a service before buying it, dial-in information lines so people can find out if the agency does provide a good, friendly service…just two examples of things that a home care agency could do to make a statement and get attention. There are loads more, and if they fit with the agency’s  branding and mission, then all the better.

Planning how to get attention for a home care agency is not as easy as its coming naturally as a fishcar, but it is possible. And then following up with media and web based communication about the event gives it “legs” so more people can find out about it. Plus the benefits will spread around for more time than just the time of the actual event. Read Amy Chilla’s blog on corecubed if you want an insight into telling your story better. Fishcar or no.

Self selection is how folks get there, and referrals. No TV, no cell phone access, just pure nature and rustic accommodations with touches of luxury where needed.  So how do they market? Catering to the high end travel and leisure business they invite the travel writers to come and visit and then just let them experience it. They provide excellent services and accommodations to their guests, and the property manager makes certain that guests know what they are in for prior to booking. It certainly is not for every vacationer, as this is a place where one can be inactive as possible (picture book at lake with view), but also highly active with kayaking, canoeing, hiking and exploring the countryside. There are no locks on the cabins. Nothing unsafe in the area (except for moose and bear) and no reason for alarms or calendars.

"Truly Remarkable" Just Needs the Right Place to Tell the Story

This is one of those truly remarkable places/products/services of which I often times write. Give folks something truly remarkable and the telling of that story is easier. On a side note, it was Coolidge who provided one of my favorite quotes, “ Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”.

The difference between experiential knowledge and knowledge obtained by research, consulting or learning from others is simply different. Thinking of an analogy, it seems that you can learn how to climb, what supplies to take with you, what to do in case of an emergency, but until you have donned the equipment, faced the elements, and actually climbed a mountain, you really cannot empathize with the hardships you face, the meaning of split second decisions in an emergency, the responsibility and the feel of the weight of the responsibility that comes from having safety over the lives of others.

Translated into running a home care business, it seems that starting, growing, understanding hardships, facing challenges and the problem solving that evolves comes out of that experience allows a person to walk that talk better than not having experienced it. It is facing a difficulty and working through it that gives a greater depth of ability to understand issues.
Our Private Duty Business Manual and all the forms one could ever want to use are available for sale on our Home Care Agency Marketplace, www.markethomecare.com. All of these processes and forms come as a result of years of experience actually starting and growing a business, and running it profitably along the way. Many of the questions I get on the private duty marketing webinars are answered in our marketing module, and all the information in all of our forms and manuals has been personally vetted, if not written, by me. So, why not use a proven tool to help growth, and one that comes from experience, having walked that talk for over 17 years and having talked that talk for 13 more.

Some benefits to using a content management system (CMS):

1. Updating. It is really easy to update a website without needing to know programming code or be skilled at web design.

2. Cost savings. It is much quicker to add pages, post articles, and link to files than it would be with the old standard HTML designed website, and you don’t have to pay another skilled person to do it.

3. Scalability. With a CMS site, planned and designed for growth, expanding and growing is easy to do with a great system already in place. ExpresssionEngine and WordPress allow for easy expansion without starting over from scratch.

4. Community & Connectivity. When updated often and set up to integrate with social media outlets, a CMS often has the ability to easily make connections with other sites and to bring more visitors to yours.

However, let me emphasize that there are other reasons that make a CMS site beneficial to the business, but those relate to the skill set of the designers and the people planning the site (which we have in depth here at corecubed):

1. Clean code. What that means to you is that the search engines like it and it makes the site ranking better if the parsing is easy.

2. Flexibility. We can easily change out showcased items on the home page, what is featured on the inside, and where photos and text are located.

3. Attractiveness. Well this is not really the CMS, this is our designers! They do know their stuff and continue to deliver top quality and incredibly attractive design.

Note that the clean code and attractiveness come from the skill of the person setting up the CMS. Don’t be misled thinking you can slap up a CMS site and have clean, SEO-friendly code out of the box. It is as easy to build an awful CMS site as it is an awful HTML site! “Well. Maybe even easier…….” says Will Chatham, Web Manager at corecubed.

Join us with a new website or a redesigned website if your business is sluggish, or if you have new products or a new story to tell. We specialize in content-driven websites and utilize ExpressionEngine and WordPress on a regular basis. Our web design team is deep and rich, and we use these tools to provide ourselves and our clients with powerful content management that doesn’t sacrifice SEO, clean code, or beautiful custom design.

We have recently completed redesigns of several home care agency sites in ExpressionEngine, a content management system that allows for incredibly intense and powerful design with that added power of editing capability for the owner. A blog is built into the software, and the code is clean so the search engines love it. A picture is worth a thousand, so take a glance at Live Free Home Health and also Responsive Home Health. I think you will be impressed with the design, the information, the ease of navigation. And, just imagine if you had the power to edit as well!

Also, although we did not control the design on these sites, we recently redid three websites in WordPress for Michael Giudicissi and Melanie Stover who run Power Shot Training, allowing them the incredible power to control content, to add information, to edit and post photos or links as they wish. Anyone who knows Michael G knows that he has a million ideas, and what better format to be able to post those ideas than on one of his websites. Check them out and go often so you can understand the power the owner or administrator or marketer has to control messaging and to launch ideas.

http://www.powershottraining.com/

http://www.homecaresales.com/

http://www.homecaresalesuniversity.com/

Want one for your agency? It’s as easy as calling 800-370-6580 x3, emailing info@corecubed.com or going to www.corecubed.com and filling out a contact us request.

Since we have loads of products and services that directly help those in the home care, home health care and hospice industries, you should know that we just upgraded our marketing site www.markethomecare.com so it is now easier to use, and better meets safety and compliance standards. Take a look see and let us know what you find there. We add in new products regularly, and the prices are right for those watching their budgets. And, in case you are not finished celebrating and want to see the largest fireworks display in North America, I am including a video from Thunder Over Louisville. Definitely NOT a flash in the pan, but the real fireworks deal.

I just love the term “Google juice”, and they have many things to say about how blogging links boost your Google juice.  Again, this also now applies to social media, a phenomena that was not present in 2006 when they wrote the book.  In fact, nothing boosts your search engine’s standing better, they said.  Neither a press release or a full page ad in the NY Times will boost your search engine rankings as much as regularly updated blogs. The shortest, cheapest, fastest and easiest route to prominent Google rankings is to blog. Note that this is still a great way to get Google rankings, but we now recommend using WordPress as the tool in which to design your website so you have the benefits of search engine friendly text and format, plus a ready to go built in blog. And that technology is affordable. Take a short web questionnaire to see costs.

Some reasons to blog (also now works with reaons to use social media IF YOUR WEBSITE IS UPDATED, ATTRACTIVE AND INTERACTIVE:

Blogging’s Six Pillars:  The six key differences between blogging and communications channels; you can find one of them elsewhere but not all:

Blogging lets you listen to what people are saying about your product, company or category and gives the opportunity to respond.

“Word of mouth on steroids” (blogging)  builds credibility, enthusiasm and customer evangelism. The same can be said for using social media.

So step 1 is to take a hard look at your website and see if it needs updating, redoing. Then step 2 is to take some action today.

Continuing to share my research when interactive marketing was just in the beginnings, and relating it to social media today, I am taking excerpts from Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, “Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. I love the term “Google juice”, and they have many things to say aboout how blogging links boost your Google juice.  Again, this also now applies to social media, a phenomen that was not present in 2006 when they wrote the book. In fact, nothing boosts your search engine’s standing better, they said.  Neither a press release or a full page ad in the NY Times will boost your search engine rankings as much as regularly updated blogs. The shortest, cheapest, fastest and easiest route to prominent Google rankings is to blog.
Blogging gets good ink and a lot of it, so it has to be good for attracting and retaining customers.
Blogging’s advantage as a recruiting tool.

The most important aspect of the blog is that it’s conversational.  Phones, faxes, email, SMS, and IM all extend the conversation through online forums, bulletin boards and chat rooms.  But none of them lets one person converse with many people of multiple locations from any point where she or he has a computer internet access; not until blogging.
Collectively, there is compelling evidence of communication’s revolution is underway, moving from a controlled one-way model to a decentralized interactive one.  Businesses need to join the conversations because they build trust.
Because blogs are also the lowest cost communications channel, you can reach thousands, perhaps millions of people, for an investment of a few cents and some personal time.
Blogs are infinitely more efficient than any other corporate communications medium.

Blogging’s Six Pillars:  The six key differences between blogging and communications channels; you can find one of them elsewhere but not all:
1. Publishable – anyone can publish a blog.  You can do it cheaply and post often.  Each posting is instantly available worldwide.
2. Findable – through search engines, people will find blogs by subject, by author or both.  The more you post, the more findable you become.
3. Social – the blogosphere is one big conversation.  Interesting, topical conversations move from site to site linking to each other.  Through blogs, people with shared interests build friendships unrestricted by geographic area.
4. Viral – information often spreads faster through blogs than via a news service.  No form of viral marketing matches the speed and efficiency of a blog.
5. Syndicatable – by clicking on an icon, you can get free home delivery of RSS enabled blogs.  RSS lets you know when a blog you subscribe to is updated, saving you search time.  This process is considerably more efficient than the last generation method of visiting one page of one web site at a time, looking for changes.
Linkable – because each blog can link to all others, every blogger has access to millions of other bloggers.
Blogging lets you listen to what people are saying about your product, company or category and gives the opportunity to respond.
“Word of mouth on steroids” (blogging)  builds credibility, enthusiasm and customer evangelism.

The message was that the core marketing revolution is about the way businesses communicate – not just with customers but with entire constituencies – partners, vendors, employees, prospects, investors and the media. Author/philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once observed: “All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as being self evident.”  This new interactive marketing (revolutionary at the time in 2006) was being called “conversational marketing, open source marketing, two-way marketing, even corner grocery store marketing”. Now we just use it and it has become self evident!

Basically, Scoble and Israel state that blogging is not for anyone, but it works for a company that is a good company, has a good product, and has some interesting stories or referral possibilities in a particular knowledge base. The blogger-writer must be authentic, passionate and an expert with knowledge to impart with the time to blog regularly.  It is this transparent, authentic communication between business and customer that draws the attention of users who are interested in the product or service. Then the interactive communication becomes a customer generator, as trust is built.

They quoted John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends: “Everything never changes.  Something has changed, and it impacts everything else.  Your life is the same; people go to the same jobs at the same places, they go home to the same families and watch the same TV programs.  Everything never changes.  Something has changed, and that something will impact a great deal; but life as we know it will continue.” And I beg to differ with this noted futurist, that life as we know it has changed. The impact of the personal computer via a mobile hand held device and the impact of social media on daily time spent interacting has changed, and it has changed dramatically.

The authors of the book agree with me in that they felt the blogging phenomena was creating revolutionary changes. The book asks, “If we were to have met you in 1994, the same young developers at Netscape were finishing up a browser that would let you view internet pages and get to those pages quickly on links, and that is what started to change the world of information sharing.” Would you think that the World Wide Web or the stagecoach, or the Gutenberg press were revolutionary changes when they were first used? History has to tell us when something is revolutionary. However, apparently history, recent history, has told us, and the Internet and how businesses are selling products and service has changed. And the way partners, vendors, employees, prospects, investors and the media get information, make decisions, and impart information has changed dramatically.

The crux of this interactive marketing, however, and one that seems to have been missed lately is that companies need to offer something so unique, valuable and compelling that people will want to tell others about it.  The writers of this now landmark book state that what turbocharges word of mouth is loyalty to people you trust, not companies whose brands you recognize.  And, “None of this matters unless the product or service is truly remarkable.” (I did just reference this statement recently, and did not know where I had seen it. Sorry to not credit you, Scoble and Israel)

If you create something remarkable, something worth remarking about, then people may actually choose to remark about it.  If they do, the word spreads.  Ideas that spread win, and they rely on people telling people.  The best way to do this is to make something worth talking about.  Marketing is now about product development, not hype.  Remarkability the authors state, is in the eye of the consumer; if the marketplace doesn’t think your product is remarkable, then it’s not.

Understanding who needs to know and how best to get to them are key to spreading the word effectively about a product or service. Right now, in today’s world, one of the best, most universal ways to reach targets is through the Internet. Whether by a website or social networking, the key is first getting attention and then keeping it. And lastly it is in converting those who are interested into buying.

There are many distracters and much noise out there vying for attention. There are also many opportunities, but, alas, that window of opportunity simply will not open itself.

What are you going to do today to see just how you can open that window? For some deeper thoughts on a global opportunity, think on the video below.

Ranked last in the conference, Coach Strong is undaunted about his new team’s capabilities. He has put together a great coaching staff, covering all the bases, and he has put effort into recruitment snaring 4 out of the top 5 graduating high school football players in Louisville. So, for a man who is used to being ranked first, he just sees this as one hurdle that he can easily get over, and over which he has some control.

And he is focusing on education. 39 of the team’s players made over a 3.0 this last semester after some strict rules went into place about class attendance and grades equating to playing on this soon to be memorable team.

Enthusiasm, focus, dedication and drive seem to be components that Coach Strong brings with him. What a pleasure it is to experience positive and uplifting moments and to hear good news about predictions for the future. Coach Strong got two standing ovations from the mostly business crowd, and if he is as successful on the field as he is in front of an audience, then watch out Big East as those CARDS are coming back.

Our new Private Duty Manual for Retirement Communities teaches you how to tap into this new revenue stream with ease. To demonstrate how, join us for our free Webinar which covers content from the Turnkey Program Manual of Operations, Forms and Marketing Materials, now offered for sale on www.markethomecare.com/retirement.

• When: Wednesday, May 19th at 11am Eastern
• Where: Your Computer!
• Register: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/139503563

As a joint effort between Barth Holohan, MSW, MBA and Merrily Orsini, MSSW, two home care industry experts, you will be able to immediately begin earning revenue without having to invest much of your precious time. This turnkey manual of operations makes the service delivery easy to implement. Based on actual working partnerships between a private duty agency and retirement communities, this manual is a complete how-to with forms and materials developed.

On our free Webinar you will see how the manual easily guides you to:

• select the right retirement facility to make the offer of services
• make it work from an internal process
• learn the nuances of how retirement communities market to clients and potential customers

You will hear feedback we have received from agencies who have already purchased the manual as well as from co-founder Barth Holohan on how he implemented this for his home care agency.

This could be the most valuable hour of time you have invested in a long time! You still have 24 hours to register!

There is a power in marketing that is really beyond imagination, but many do not understand it, nor take the time to really internalize what it means. Branding is the essence of blow your top off marketing. However, branding takes strategy, time, patience, measurement, and perseverance.  It is not a quick fix to a dying business.

Introspection is the first step. Think about, study, and figure out exactly what your service differentiation (brand) really is. Do you pride yourself on being customer-friendly? If so, does everything you do—from the FAQ on your Web site to the length of time a caller spends on hold when inquiring on the phone—support this image? If not, revisit the essence of your service’s branding.  As a reminder, here is what “branding” means. Branding is the perception of your business that is created at every point of contact with the public.

Our MOST program provides the opportunity for an agency to reinforce a brand image that is knowledgeable, helpful, resourceful and caring. Everything we do in that program is geared towards enhancing the home care agency brand, and, because we know the power of branding, we continue to help our home care clients succeed in this increasingly competitive world.

Have a good day today, and think about how much better it would be if you subscribed to the theory of using blow your top off marketing.

What this means, is that we now have complete modules that are based on a 30+ home care themes (PPTs, press releases, brochures, resource tips and helpful information, Web links, Web banners) as well as many standalone items. What started out as targeting referrals within the industry has now become a robust resource for an agency allowing an independent agency (or a location of a franchise) to compete in this crowded home care market place with the very best marketing and sales material available anywhere. Communicating regularly is one key to staying in the mind of people who might need services, and the corecubed team implements the direct mail, the email eNewsletter (topical and VERY interesting and well read amongst the agencys’ email lists), so taking time to have regular communication with clients, families, referral sources and prospectives of each of those categories is not only done for the MOST program members, but also the communication adds value because of its helpful and informative nature.

Rising above the crowd is the theme of the next MOST Webinar that is sales oriented (disclosure) but also will take the attendee inside the Web-based resource library and showcase the content and material that has been developed. If you are a home care agency or if you have a friend who owns one, I suggest you either sign or direct them to sign up for the Tuesday, May 18^th one hour free (3 PM Eastern time)  Webinar now. The program is only offered to one agency in any geographic area because it is so good team corecubed does not want 2 people getting the same helpful information. The program maintains a 92% retention rate with our most successful home care companies using MOST and corecubed as their marketing partner. This is really a marketing program that is beyond belief in its depth and quality, and we are proud to say that we continue to listen to our clients and develop new ways for the MOST program members to compete and to rise above the crowd.

Focus is what won that race. Alright, he is talented, skilled, experienced as well, but it is the focus that separated him from the others who did not win on Saturday. And it is focus along with persistence and determination that makes businesses succeed. Take a look at your agency’s or business’ marketing efforts, and ask yourself if you are approaching a) the right targets with b) the right message and c) the right way so they will respond as you are desiring.

Take a look at Responsive Home Health’s new Web site and notice the focus on the right target with words, photos, and interactivity. Then take a look at the content. Resource rich, helpful, targeted. Then add on the well designed and realize also that you are looking around because it interests you, it invites you in, and it fills a need when you are there.

Think of a Web site as your office. People who come to you need  to get what they want, find it easily, complete their business and move on to the next step of doing business with you. corecubed has added to its bench strength in our Web design department, and the results are powerful.

Barth came to me with the idea that corecubed could use our organizational and design expertise to work with him to bring this manual to market. We have done just that, and it is now available for sale on www.markethomecare.com.

If you have an established private duty agency, you can purchase this manual and have a new revenue stream up and running in no time.

Barth is going to discuss this online at a Webinar this Thursday, April 29 at 4 PM Eastern time. You can register online here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/795625987.

After spending several years (and untold dollars) trying to find the formula that works both for the home care agency and for the retirement community, the system is in place. To say that this program can generate an additional revenue stream, is a mild understatement, as Barth is experiencing 6 figure revenues from this service line alone. And there are mutual benefits with the community in his model.

This is just one of the ideas percolating in the minds of senior care marketing experts here at corecubed. Thought I would share!

Note that this manual is not for sale in St. Louis city, St. Louis county or St. Charles Counties in Missouri.

The advent of social media is such an additional bonus to event marketing, as now Coca Cola can use others (like me) to spread their word. And, you have to admit that watching this DOES make you smile! So you are starting your day with a Coke and a smile, and that means the strategy worked.

The rest, as we say, is history.

So, I dug holes and used potting soil hoping that at least the newly planted plants could thrive and that I am set out to change the composition of this hard blue clay.  As I was sweating and toiling to try and fix this problem I realized that, not unlike marketing, without a good foundation (targets, messaging, differentiating factors), the basis of a solid strategic marketing plan, like a good garden spot, without the foundation, it is hard to grow and prosper. And both for the garden and the business, if you have a lousy base, then it is hard to get the growth that is expected, long term. You can do quick fixes, but, unless you really look at the base cause, the foundation, you can create fixes, but not long term solutions.

Hopefully, with one hole at a time replacing clay with potting soil and sand and peat moss, the clay will succumb to acting like soil and not clay. For marketing, taking one hole at a time and fixing it will also work, but not as well as starting with a good foundation and building upon that.

Other than great accolades for our design capabilities, she also complemented us on the branding we have accomplished with the larger target-businesses who want to grow and are committed to strategic ally get there, and our home care related businesses. I specifically appreciated that as we strive to grow each of our clients in the way that is best suited to them and their targets. We certainly understand branding and the power of the brand in the marketplace. It is an investment, but a worthwhile one, if you ask me.

It seems to me, that if you can really delve deeply into an industry, that you not only created value for clients in THAT industry, but that you also create value for the niche industry. As you are constantly challenged with other results in other industries. Just food for thought to follow-up on my feelings (more strongly than ever) that a GREAT WEB SITE is the basic element to this equation for success in today’s market place.

 Then he wrote, “Thanks again to the whole team at Core Cubed, you guys are awesome.”

This site was designed using one of the newer content management systems that have now reached critical mass in terms of being affordable and making maintenance easier for the business contact. Technology is really amazing when it works, and since we have been designing Web sites for 12 years now, we have gotten better and better at a) design, b) SEO built into the design and text, and c) matching client budget with the final product.

We just completed an easy to price checklist of items, so we now can turn around pricing and get the site into production fairly quickly. So come a callin’ and find out just how awesome we really are!

Access their Web site here:

http://hhc.sagepub.com/current.dtl

Some highlights of the article:
“One of the most common – and most costly – mistakes business owners are making today is to underestimate the power of social media or to think that it doesn’t apply to their business.”

“Who would have predicted that viewers of the U.S. Presidential Debates would upload their questions as videos to YouTube to be televised to millions and asked of the candidates themselves? Who would have thought that Twitter – a farcically-named Web portal that acts as today’s telegraph, limiting users to messages of only 140 characters – would become the vehicle for dissidents protesting the results of the Iranian Presidential election to bypass government censors and report on the chaos and violence taking place in their country? And U.S. President Barack Obama’s election is often credited to his campaign’s ability to harness the power of Facebook and online support.”

“In his book, Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, author Dave Evans provides this all-inclusive definition of social media.

“Social media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between anchors, people and peers. Social media uses the “wisdom of the crowds” to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video.”
Evans, Dave. Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing Inc; 2008. Pg. 33, 35.”

Identifying and addressing objections covers privacy issues and control of content.  Plus there is a section specific to health care applications.

corecubed is an active player in social media and has been for several years. We create blogs for clients, design and maintain Web sites or design them for our clients to maintain themselves, assist with setting up FaceBook and Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. We even help our clients populate social media activities.

Furthermore, 60% of respondents claimed their Facebook fandom increased the chance they would recommend a brand to a friend. Among Twitter followers, that proportion rose to nearly eight in 10.

And why is it that people become fans? The number one reason was to receive discounts.

The performance of Heist was also sold out (although tickets were free for the asking) and the lobby museum area was overloaded with folks just hoping to get in to see this interactive event that traveled throughout the hotel and near environs solving a mystery.

Marketing lesson #1: communicate about yourself shamelessly if you have something to brag about
Marketing lesson #2: quality is always appreciated and valued
Marketing lesson #3: partner with others so each gets benefits from a positive outcome

The meal was memorable, the hotel is just amazing (it was sold out as well for the weekend), and the exciting thing was that there were so many people from around the world in Louisville last night enjoying the evening’s offerings when they could have been anywhere else in the world. And without great branding, good marketing communications, and follow up and follow through, none of this would have happened or been available!

Example 1 is the client who bought lots of new domain names (URLs) and wanted to “trick” the search engines by creating lots of mini sites that all drive traffic to the main Web site. A dangerous strategy if Google perceives that it is trying to be tricked, and a waste of effort and money. The better strategy? Get great back links by doing something worthy of being posted on some dynamite site. Write a relevant article and submit it to a national publication. Create a blog and build interest by offering something of worth on that blog. Use short video that addresses issues that the prospective client might find interesting, or that answer questions usually asked and hard to answer. The best strategy is to have a current Web site, well designed and maintained and optimized for search engines.

Relevancy is the key to getting ranked well, and there is an art to keeping that ranking by making the site work for you. Blogs, videos and changing content will help as well. But the key to ranking is relevancy and the key to getting and keeping interest is to be interesting (and relevant).

Example 2 is the client who wants a dynamite Web site so there is measurable ROI. Yes, corecubed can build a dynamite Web site that will be relevant, designed for search engines, and we use SEO in creating content and naming pages and photos. But how do you measure ROI from a Web site? Inquiries? Traffic to the site? Downloads? All of these are definitely measurable events, but the REAL ROI for any business is growing revenues and increasing profits. And the Web site is just one component of good marketing.

The start of good marketing strategy is starting with the basics. Who is the target customer? What messages resonate with them? What visuals will attract them that also marry with the message? THEN you build a dynamite Web site that is interesting, attractive, organically optimized for the search engines and one that does attract your target customers. So, no silver bullet unless you create it the way it is intended to be created with no shortcuts!

• Some tips for surviving and thriving in 2010:
  • Lead with optimism–always.
  • Collaborate when practical and relevant–but don’t create subcommittees.
  • Focus on and build a culture of excellence, base it on trust and it will see you through the tough times.
  • Be a change agent.
  • Be fearless.

As I head to Miami for the National Association for Home Care and Hospice Board Meeting and then the national home care strategic planning day on Friday, Feb 12th, I am challenged to live by these tips and a few more of my own:
Plan the work and work the plan
Know the audience before you speak
Integrity will always win, in the end
What goes around comes around (although maybe not in the timeframe you would like)

Do you have any words of wisdom or tips for survival for 2010? Share them, please!

Yes, there is a shift in the fundamental way we communicate. Ask us at corecubed. We know of what we speak.

See how it works? You actually WATCHED it, didn’t you? That is the essence of marketing and how incredible it is to have access to the tools we have to spread the word about a product and to get folks to INTERACT! Call us today at corecubed to see how we can make YOUR product a star and get potential customers to help you tell your story so people will listen.

Enjoy! And thanks, Ken!

Entrepreneurs interested in claiming a stake in the growing elder care industry will likely have questions: “Where do I start?” “What are the costs associated with starting a business?” “Am I the right person to have a business?” “What tools do I need?” “How do I go about marketing my business?” “What procedures, forms or resources are available for my new business?”

Listen to my FREE Webinar archived on www.MarketHomeCare.com and find out the answers to many of the questions you may have about starting and running a successful non-medical home care agency. Then browse around on the site to see all the tools we offer to assist you in starting and running and growing a profitable agency.

During my FREE educational Webinar, you will learn:

• The basics of starting and operating a non-medical home care company, including estimating costs and creating an efficient administrative operation
• The basics of strategically marketing your home care company internally and externally, attracting and retaining reliable staff members as well as new clients

These useful hints and tips for start-ups are just the beginning. You’ll also learn about a variety of tools, resources, products and customizable solutions for starting or growing your private duty business.

Listen NOW! Find out more about starting a non-medical home care business, visit www.startprivateduty.com. Or, check out the Private Duty Business Manual, an experienced-based how-to guide written by me, using my years of first-hand knowledge of owning a home care agency. It is a great tool for starting or growing a home care agency!

It’s a legitimate question. Much has been made recently of the supposed power of social media marketing. As experts declare social media to be the new chessboard where all the best branding moves are made, marketers are rushing to their keyboards to post Facebook statuses and tweet to their hearts’ content.

Click here to see this dynamite video on the real value of social media marketing, done right.

Most people want to know what is the return on investment with Social Media as a marketing tactic?

Social media is today what the Internet was in the mid-1990s. It’s a great tool, but it doesn’t guarantee success unless you understand its rules, and use strategy to implement it. Not every egg the goose lays is golden.

The key to adopting any marketing tactic is to measure the time/money spent, as well as the benefits you receive. Examine your technique. Measure your results. What works and what doesn’t work? It’s important to concentrate on the more successful aspects of social media, (or any marketing) while “cutting out the fat” by eliminating the time wasting chores and money wasting tactics.

At corecubed, we know there’s more to social media marketing than just planting your flag and staking a claim. It’s not enough to be involved. You have to be effective, engaged, integrated and willing to listen. Let us be your partners as you create a marketing strategy that  delivers the results you need. Call us today!

More details: Effective marketing is key for growing any business. The home care industry, however, requires a marketing approach that differs from standard and traditional marketing efforts in many crucial ways. Do you want to learn the foundational basics to improve your marketing efforts for your home care agency to stand out from the competition?

These three Webinars offer an overview of marketing strategy as it specifically relates to growing a home care business. Industry veteran and marketing home care expert Merrily Orsini, MSSW, will introduce you to marketing tools and techniques proven to take your agency to the next level.

These  educational Webinars teach:

- What important marketing information you need to know when it comes to home care
- The essentials of keeping your brand top of mind
- What marketing efforts you should start right away
- How to budget for the best results
- Techniques for allocating marketing time when time is scarce

Plus much, much  more.

In keeping with my last sharing of classic TV marketing campaigns, I am bringing you Part II of the list. Enjoy the humor, the creativity and the bizarre inspiration that brought you these successful commercials from the past. And start thinking today of how you are going to reach your target market in 2010 and let corecubed be a part of the process!
 
B-O-L-O-G-N-A: “My bologna has a first name. It’s O-S-C-A-R.”

After all, children are likely to be the top consumers of bologna. Why shouldn’t its spokesperson be a child? These ads get points for their cute factor. This one began that long-lived American jingle that promoted Oscar Mayer bologna.

Pepsi does the Moonwalk: a perfect example of a high-profile company using a high-profile celebrity spokesperson to shape its message.

Chihuahua runs for the border. Nothing said “cute” like the tiny but cuddly Taco Bell Chihuahua. Constantly chanting the mantra, “Yo quiero Taco Bell,” this unnamed pet garnered such popularity among American consumers that Taco Bell Chihuahua toys were even developed. On the down side, some Latin American lobby groups viewed the ads as racist, and Taco Bell eventually dropped the mascot. But not before LOADS of tacos were sold! 

Well, we certainly hope you’ve enjoyed our trip down memory lane. And we know that we can certainly learn from the past. But, the past is the past and the future is bright and clear! Whether you’re looking to take the plunge into social media, redo or do a Web site or have your marketing campaign created from scratch, corecubed stands as your devoted partner into the next year and beyond.

For your enjoyment are some fun examples of the all-time number-one most popular television ads to ever grace your screen.

Where’s the Beef?

Let Hertz put you in the Driver Seat

Ernest P. Worrell and Mellow Yellow

Budweiser Frogs

On behalf of everyone here at corecubed, I’d like to wish you all Happy Holidays! Here’s hoping you had a great 2009 and that 2010 will prove to be even more successful! As your marketing partners, we stand ready to assist you in all your marketing, PR and design needs!

Cepia LLC, the company that created Zhu Zhu Pets, describes its flagship invention as the next best thing to the real thing.

The hamsters come equipped with artificial intelligence and the ability to react to outside stimuli. Accessories include a skateboard, small car and hamster wheel.

Why are the toys such a hit? Perhaps it is the unorthodox marketing techniques Cepia used to jump-start the popularity of its new product.

The first step in the process is simple: They had a good product. You might think that’s overly simplistic, but it’s not. Cepia took the time to do the proper research and find out what kind of toy robots consumers wanted. It was decided that the robot should take the form of a pet – and hamsters, in particular, were “cute” pets that parents hated to buy, since they were often seen as large rats. For this reason, a robotic substitute might be in order: It could be as cute as a real hamster, but without the stigma a live rodent brings with it. and without having to clean any cages.

Of course, after the company perfected the product, it came time to implement the marketing. Instead of opting for high budget TV ads, Cepia LLC decided to take its product to the people. Over the summer, marketers held product demonstrations at Major League Baseball games in states such Georgia, Arizona and Texas.

Social media also played a significant role in Cepia’s marketing strategy. Mothers who maintained active online blogs were given free Zhu Zhu Pets so they could test them out with their children. The face-to-face demonstrations, combined with the online buzz that was building in the blogosphere was enough to generate the demand we see today.

Even the toy retailers themselves have found their own ways to help sell the product. A report on I4U News explains how Walmart was able to use TwitPic to post images of new Zhu Zhu shipments arriving on planes, thus getting the word out that its local stores would soon be restocked.

The moral of the story: Despite what you may have heard, good marketing is not all about big budgets and lots of on-air time. Smart marketers understand that success is more about creativity and meeting consumers where they are. Do that, and you’ll soon see that even the smallest of rodents can run with the big dogs.

And, know that corecubed uses a strategy based integrated marketing communications model and we are experts at reaching targets where they are with powerful messages that resonate and cause the target to purchase. Sound simple? If it were simple, everyone would be able to do it!

Watch a Fox News story on the Zhu Zhu:

That was the situation when the Plymouth colonists were approached by Squanto and other members of the Wabanake tribe of Native Americans. Thankfully, the two disparate cultures found common ground. Squanto and his tribesmen taught the settlers how to hunt, create clothes from animal skins, collect sap, dig and cook clams, build wigwams and other skills vital for survival in the New World. In exchange, the settlers shared with their newfound friends many of the inventions and techniques that had been developed in the European world.

It was a partnership borne out of mutual respect. And because of it, the colonists flourished – even in this harsh “survival-of-the-fittest” environment. As a result, the new partnership was solidified by a feast that became known as the first Thanksgiving.

The story is relevant to us today. As business owners, we’re also just emerging from difficult times. The economic recession is still upon us, and the casualties are all too real. Many of our colleagues and fellow businesses have not survived. It is only the bond of respect between us and our loyal clients – working together – that has given us the opportunity to succeed. It’s important that we never forget this.

This is just a reminder to thank your clients. Take the time to let them see your gratitude. And while you’re at it, learn something about this holiday we now celebrate that we call Thanksgiving.

When it comes to e-mail marketing, there’s one list you always want to have in the back of your mind:  the list of forbidden spam words.

We all have e-mail In-boxes, and along with those In-boxes come the ever-helpful spam filter, blocking irrelevant, annoying e-mails advertising cheap financial advice, ridiculous sweepstakes and Viagra. But occasionally, it will filter out worthwhile e-mails containing information relevant to the user – such as your e-Newsletters.

Why does it happen? More often than not, your email was blocked because it used one of the taboo words your client’s spam filter has blacklisted. The appearance of any of these words – particularly in a subject line – can doom your e-mail to a cold, lonely grave.

So how can we recognize these evil words and vaporize them before they cause us any trouble?

Some of those words include:

 Cheap                  Cash Bonus              100% Free        Affordable      Apply Now
Free Offer              Guarantee                Home Based     Increase Sales  Incredible Deal
Limited Time Offer   Make $                  Save $              Prices            Opportunity
Order Now             Refinance                 Weight Loss     Stop Snoring  Reverses Aging
Thousands             Remove                    Promise You    Mortgage Rates 

 As you can see, many of the words or phrases are obvious. Anytime someone sees or hears the words “100% free,” warning bells should go off. But there are also some seemingly innocuous words among the mix. Words like “prices,” “mortgage rates” and “opportunity” could be used in a worthwhile context, but still be seen as a red flag by spam filters.

For some more words that are banned, WordPress.org keeps a list. The point is, lists like the above are helpful, but they’re still not a surefire guarantee that your e-mail is certain to reach its recipient.  As Stephanie Miller of Deliverability.com states, “it isn’t really about a list of words, per se, it’s how the filters see constantly evolving combinations of words being used.”

The key is to develop marketing copy that is original and creative, without resorting to tired clichés or generic catchphrases. This is where an experienced marketing firm can be an invaluable asset. If your e-mail comes with a subject line that’s so creative it’s never been done before, chances are it will whiz right by the spam police before they even get a chance to glance at their radar gun. 

You can also gauge the deliverability of your e-mails. Before distributing them to your clients, try sending one to yourself, your friends and employees who may be using different e-mail service providers to see if they receive them.

You don’t want to be labeled as a “spammer.” With a little due diligence and creative partner like corecubed, your e-mail communication will be able to steer clear of bouncers and be the life of the Inbox.

For others, the trade show turns out to be nothing more than a dizzying blur of booths, business cards, cocktails and cab rides. It’s a traumatic treadmill ride that fails to bear fruit in the form of new business.

Here are some tips to help your agency make a positive impression on the trade show floor.

1) Understand why you’re going. During the fast-paced, adrenaline-laced rush of a trade show, it’s easy to get caught up in the pizzazz and lose track of what should be your focus:  making strategic alliances, getting leads and generating new business. As a result, many exhibitors end up wasting their time on engagements that do nothing to help their business.

“Trade shows aren’t meant as an excuse to visit friends, collect hundreds of business cards for your collection and show everyone how nice your booth looks,” writes Al Lautenslager for Entrepreneur.com.

He’s right. Don’t automatically accept that invitation to spend the evening over cocktails – even if it’s with an old friend – if the engagement doesn’t stand a chance of helping you meet your goals.
2) Be Prepared. It’s more than just the Boy Scout motto – it’s the distinguishing factor between success and failure in marketing. It’s generally a good idea to start preparing for the show at least three months ahead of time. That will give you the space you need to figure out what your booth will look like, how much lighting it will need, what your space requirements are and how you’re going to organize labor to construct the booth and take it down. You’ll also need extra time to order all of your marketing materials such as printed brochures, colorful banners, etc. Making a plan and setting goals will help you come closer to accomplishing what you intend to accomplish.

3) Consider Role-playing. If your goal is to win new clientele, you want the employees who run your booth to listen to trade show attendees, but also be willing to take control of the conversation and steer it toward your ends. They need to be able to recognize when the meeting is veering off course and be able to point it in the right direction. One good way to train your employees to take charge is through rigorous training.

“Preparing your staff for the show can involve creating scripts for them, role-playing and answering any questions they might have,” writes Jonathan Edelman for TradeShowMarketing.com. “Your trade show checklist should establish certain expectations regarding their collection of sales or leads. It should also remind you to assign specific responsibilities to your employees as early as four months before the event.”

He adds that weekly or biweekly training sessions should then be scheduled to prepare them to meet these goals. There are loads of tips on this site if you want to take notes for some certain success.

4) Be Organized. You don’t want to return from the trade show with a disorganized pile of business cards. These aren’t just pieces of paper – they’re invaluable keys to new business. Find a way to stay organized, whether it means purchasing a book to keep them in or a digital business card scanner. You need to be able to follow up with these people – otherwise, those thousands of dollars you spent on the trade show will all have been in vain. Following up is really one of the keys to success.

5) Have Fun! The very fact that you’re at a trade show demonstrates a certain level of success. This is your chance to show that success off! Confidence, enthusiasm and professionalism are the order of the day – but don’t be afraid to take some time to roam the floor, partake of good food, take in the competition and enjoy the city!

The secret to success is preparation. That, combined with determination and a steady focus on your goals will keep you from becoming a trade show casualty.

At corecubed, trade show planning and management is one of our marketing endeavors. Whether you’re new to the trade show scene, or an old hand who just wants a partner to shoulder some of the burden, corecubed can help you make the most of your time on the floor. Call us to day and we’ll get started!And come see corecubed at the PDHCA conference in Phoenix January 24-26, 2010 and see what we are preaching to you IN ACTION!

Watch this video on trade shows!

For more details on these forecasted ideas, read FutureLab’s David Armano in more detail.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced revisions to its guidelines for endorsements and product reviews – guidelines, we might add, that before now hadn’t been revised in almost 30 years.

According to an article posted by CNN, the guidelines affect product endorsements that appear in a “New Media” format, such as on blogs and social media sites. The upshot of the revisions is this:  If an individual or company is being compensated in some way – be it money, free products or some other form – to endorse or review a product on a blog or social media site, they have to disclose the relationship publicly. If they fail to do so, they could risk a fine of up to $11,000 per incident.
 
The revisions are having more than just a small impact. Just take the case of Mid America Chevy Dealers.

Earlier this month, the association of Chevy dealerships announced a promotion that lets six area mothers test drive Chevy’s new Equinox and Traverse crossover vehicles for a full month. The association also provides each mother with gas money and $150 in groceries. In exchange, the mothers are required to review the vehicles on blogs hosted by a Chevy promotional site.

Though cautioned to be truthful about the shortcomings of the vehicles, the women are promised rewards such as free massages if they persuade a reader to take a test drive.

Proponents of the FTC’s position say that bloggers who fail to inform consumers of this type of quid-pro-quo relationship could improperly sway readers. Those bloggers might feel compelled to minimize certain deficiencies in the vehicles in order to appease “the hand that feeds them,” so to speak. Full disclosure of this affiliation, the FTC argues, would arm consumers with crucial data they need to make a fully informed decision.

On the other hand, some critics argue that the revisions are an attempt by big government to stifle free speech in the blogosphere. Others say they single out online media for excessive scrutiny.

“Significantly, the new rules place requirements on social media from which traditional print and television media are exempt,” writes Tim Jones in a legislative analysis published on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Web site. “For instance, if a blogger publishes a book review, the rules will require her to disclose whether she received a free copy of the book from the publisher. Book reviews in print media face no such restrictions.”

In any case, what does all of this mean for you as a business? What should you do to comply with the new regs?

1)   Review your online marketing presence. Examine how your business markets itself in the blogosphere and in social media. Is all of your Web material created internally, or do you work with external partners? Who writes your blogs and status updates? Employees? Members of a professional association?

2)   Determine how each of these content producers are compensated. It’s important to note that “compensation,” according to the FTC, does not have to consist of money. It can take the form of free products, free services, a business partnership, referrals, etc. Any sort of quid-pro-quo relationship can be viewed by regulators as “compensation.”

3)   Disclose everything. Are your bloggers employees who receive a regular salary for their work? Disclose it. (The actual dollar amount is unnecessary.) The goal of the regulation is to let consumers know what may or may not be influencing the opinions of the bloggers.

4)   Do a reverse analysis. Determine how you and your business are taking part in the marketing of other companies. Do you write blogs or social media content for business partners? Are you being compensated in any way for that material? If so, you also will have to disclose your agency’s relationship to the companies and associations you’re marketing.

5)   Most importantly: Talk to your attorney. It’s critical to seek out the services of a competent attorney to ensure that you’re complying with these regulations. Neither this site nor any other that is not skilled in the practice of law can provide you with legal advice, and none of the material you are reading here consists of such.

As New Media continues to evolve and play a much more significant role in marketing, regulators will continue to closely monitor its use. We at corecubed are committed to keeping you informed about the latest developments when it comes to online marketing. Together, we can stay on the forefront of cutting edge communication as we look forward to 2010.

See the video below about the revisions:

Click here to view the text in a PDF of the newly revised FTC guidelines.

Here is some more information from our press release:

Merrily Orsini, MSSW, creator of the MOST Monthly Marketing Communications program, was named a Finalist in the Marketing Campaign of the Year category in the 6th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. 

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, and the companies they run – worldwide.  The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world’s premier business awards.

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word “crowned,” winners will be announced during a gala event at the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York on Friday, November 13.  Nominated women executives and entrepreneurs from the U.S.A. and several other countries are expected to attend.   The presentations will be broadcast live on radio in the U.S.A. by the Business TalkRadio Network.

More than 1,100 entries were submitted this year for consideration in 54 categories, including Best Executive, Best Entrepreneur, and Best Community Involvement Program.  Merrily Orsini, MSSW, is a Finalist in the Marketing Campaign of the Year category.

Founder of parent company, corecubed, and creator of the MOST Monthly Marketing Communications program, Merrily Orsini, MSSW, is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Home Care and Hospice and serves as the Chairman of the Private Duty Homecare Association.  Orsini comments,

“We are thrilled to be among such a distinguished group of finalists for the Stevie Awards.  The MOST program was developed as a direct response to a need we saw for home care agencies.  Home care agency owners simply do not have time in their day to spend creating a campaign to market their services.  With MOST, home care agencies have access to monthly educational marketing tools that touch their referral sources and targeted customers and keep their agency top of mind.  Customizable and geographically exclusive, our clients’ feedback is that the MOST monthly marketing program has allowed them to compete head-to-head with the national agencies and increase their billable hours.”

Finalists were chosen by business professionals worldwide during preliminary judging. Members of the Awards’ Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs will select Stevie Award winners from among the Finalists during final judging.

“Being named a Finalist in The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an important achievement,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards.  “It means that independent business executives have agreed that the nominee is worthy of recognition.  We congratulate all of the Finalists on their achievement and wish them well in the competition.”

Orsini continued, “To be recognized for innovation in this niche market is a great honor and we look forward to continuing to serve the home care industry with the best marketing solutions available.”

Details about The Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/women.

“Guerrilla marketing” is a term coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book of the same name which was written in 1984. On his Web site, Levinson defines guerrilla marketing as the art of “achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joy, with unconventional methods, such as investing energy instead of money.” Levinson says, “Guerrilla marketing is needed because it gives small businesses a delightfully unfair advantage: certainty in an uncertain world, economy in a high-priced world, simplicity in a complicated world, marketing awareness in a clueless world.”

 Gorilla marketing is what I am calling efforts that are highly funded, think the 800 pound gorilla, tactics that are more traditional and in your face, like paid advertising. Tactics that cost more, but may not be as effective as some of the more creative and targeted tactics used in guerrilla marketing campaigns. Gorilla tactics are easier to pull off, but may not have the same effect, if done correctly, as the guerrilla variety.

It may sound bizarre, but the following was the scene at several state fairs, trade shows and seminars across the country this year. A part of “Germs Unite!” – a guerilla-marketing program launched by Sani-Professional to promote its anti-bacterial hand wipes goes something like this:

You and your two toddlers are strolling through the state fair one hot, sunny August evening. You’re taking in the sights and sounds and the kids are licking the heart out of sticky ice cream cones. When a drop of vanilla lands on little Sally’s hand, she asks for a hand wipe.

Suddenly, a man and a woman – both dressed in lavishly bizarre costumes – come tearing out from the crowd.

“Don’t use those wipes, kid!” the man shouts.

“Don’t you know you’re killing innocent germs??” the woman cries.

“STOP THE GERMICIDE!!!!” another man screams as he falls to his knees nearby.

The trio – who are dressed as germs, you quickly realize – suddenly erupt in loud chants of protest, raising placards and drawing laughs and confused stares from onlookers. The kids, on the other hand, are a bit freaked out before they realize this is a stunt.

According to the Germs unite! Web site, the “germs” – actors in costume – travel the country staging protests. They also blog and maintain Facebook, Twitter and Flikr accounts. An online schedule shows the dates and locations of the next protests.

“We the germfolks of the world are protesting the senseless killing of our people by Sani-Professional with their products,” the site proclaims. Watch their video of the germ killers in action to see if you agree this is good effective marketing or not.

And, if you still cannot conceive of this, click here to see a video of Germs Unite! in action.

Sani-Professional’s strategy is an example (although a weird one) of “guerrilla marketing.”

So how effective are guerrilla-marketing techniques? Like any marketing technique, the basics still need to be included. The target is important, as is the message, and is the delivery channel.

Germs Unite! recently received an award for best business-to-business integrated online campaign from the Online Media Marketing and Advertising (OMMA) Awards Show. Of course, rewards don’t necessarily translate into revenue. But at least some knowledgeable people think the campaign was effective. Sales increases will tell the true story. This is not one of my personal favorites, but it does provide a good example of a campaign followed through.

Other guerrilla marketing projects haven’t been so lucky. In fact, some have been borderline dangerous.

In January 2007, a number of magnetic light display boxes depicting characters from the Cartoon Network’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” were placed in and around the city of Boston as part of a guerrilla-marketing scheme. When those boxes were mistaken for explosive devices, several streets, subways and bridges were shut down and the boxes destroyed before it was revealed what they were. A potential dangerous and definitely harmful to the business marketing scheme.

So is guerrilla marketing a good idea?

It can be, if the product is right for it, and if it engages the customer effectively and succeeds in communicating the selling points. Contrasting successful guerrilla marketing techniques with more conventional forms of marketing is one way to decide.

You also don’t want your guerrilla marketing techniques to be seen as a cheap publicity stunt. Such was the case with McAfee, a manufacturer of security software, held a partner conference in Las Vegas, and competitor Symantec decided to run a barrage of advertisements at the Las Vegas McCarran Airport to greet McAfee partners as they arrived. According to an article on CRN.com, the amount of advertising was so extreme – and so unfocused – that some solution providers who witnessed it saw it as a “wrongheaded approach.”

“It’s like going to a chocolate convention and being bombarded for ads with vanilla,” the article quoted one provider as saying. “I’m pretty sure that all of the pastry chefs were aware that vanilla existed.”

Moral of the story: Guerrilla advertising can be a good way of getting attention. But it only works if you know your audience and are speaking to their needs. If it doesn’t, it’s annoying and you may feel the backlash in your pocketbook. In other words, sometimes you get the gorilla and sometimes the gorilla gets you.

Ask us at corecubed for ways to go to market that a) fit your budget, b) are effective and c) will not embarrass you but will reap positive rewards for your business.

These are all effective, high profile means of disseminating your message to the masses. They are also expensive.

In each case, you’re paying a media outlet to feature your company prominently in the public eye. You’re effectively forking over cash to buy ad space, whether it be a few minutes of radio time or a predetermined square footage of billboard space. Mucho dinero means mucho ad space. No green means you’re out of luck.

But have you considered that you can get your message out just as effectively without laying down the lettuce for space?

It’s true. The fact of the matter is, you can get your name in print, on the radio – even wedged nicely into a few minutes of television airtime – without ever paying the media a cent.

The secret is in effective – and aggressive – media and community relations. In short, it’s all about “earned media.”

What is earned media?

Allyson Kapin, a blogger for FrogLoop.com, defines earned advertising as “media you don’t buy, but earn the old fashioned way – by taking the time to properly engage reporters, bloggers and influentials about your issue.” You can disseminate your message through blogs, media outlets, podcasts, photo sharing sites, social media networks and word of mouth. Instead of clients and customers gathering around an ad jingle or character mascot, they are drawn to your product or service for the experience it provides. That experience may come through media coverage or – more likely – a grassroots groundswell built around the familiarity of seeing your company in day-to-day life.

For example, take the case of KogiBBQ, a company that consists of two taco trucks that drive around Los Angeles, servicing Korean barbeque tacos. As Fred Wilson, a New York City-based blogger, explains, KogiBBQ’s marketing campaign consists of Twitter updates – the company has about 13,500 followers – and other social media endeavors, including a flickr stream and an active blog.

The company was started by a team of food professionals who sprung from top food restaurants. What they didn’t have was money. That’s when they found out about earned advertising, such as social networking.

“The blog, the photos, the tweets and mostly the tacos did the trick,” Wilson writes. “KogiBBQ is such a big hit that they increase the revenues at the clubs they park outside of at night by more than 2x. And the lines are Shake Shack lengths. People often wait an hour or more for one of these tacos. The point of telling you this story is that earned media is both powerful and free. But you must earn it. KogiBBQ posts photos to flickr every day and tweets all day long. They reply to tweets as well. They are active in their ‘earned media.’”

Earned advertising does not necessarily have to be limited to online social networking. It can also consist of community involvement that fosters freewill – and sometimes – media attention. Sponsor a little league team. Offer yourself up to the media as an expert in geriatric care. Host a gathering for elderly war veterans to meet and discuss their experiences. Build a positive experience around your brand so that consumers will get “good vibes” when they see your logo.

It can be powerful and effective – and it doesn’t cost a cent to the media.

Perhaps one of the most recent examples of effective “earned” media is the case of Ann Minch, a Bank of America customer who posted an angry YouTube rant after her credit card rates went up. As a result of her video, a BofA representative called her and renegotiated her credit card statements. Just a few moments ago, even as this blog was being written, she was interviewed on FoxNews about the effectiveness of the video. That was free advertising she didn’t have to pay a cent for. It worked for her. It can work for your company.

corecubed is experienced at building and implementing earned and some not earned advertising strategies. To find out more, simple contact us today!

Rule #1
Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anything else. If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do the best you can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you – like a fever.

Rule #2
Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations.

Rule #3
Motivate your partners. Money and ownership aren’t enough. Set high goals, encourage competition and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs.

Rule #4
Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they’ll understand. The more they understand, the more they’ll care. Once they care, there’s no stopping them. Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitors.

Rule #5
Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.

Rule #6
Celebrate your success and find humor in your failures. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Loosen up and everyone around you will loosen up. Have fun and always show enthusiasm. When all else fails put on a costume and sing a silly song.

Rule #7
Listen to everyone in your company, and figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front line – the ones who actually talk to customers – are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. You’d better find out what they know.

Rule #8
Exceed your customer’s expectations. If you do they’ll come back over and over. Give them what they want – and a little more. Let them know you appreciate them. Make good on all your mistakes, and don’t make excuses – apologize. Stand behind everything you do. ‘Satisfaction guaranteed’ will make all the difference.

Rule #9
Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you’re too inefficient.

Rule #10
Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction.
________________________________________
Sam Walton’s 10 Rules For Success - from Sam Walton: Made in America, My Story, co-authored by J. Huey, Doubleday.

An article in The Wall Street Journal quotes Janet Evans, an attorney for the agency, as saying that the FTC has “grave concerns” over a campaign by Anheuser-Busch to roll out Bud Light cans branded with the colors of various college sports teams. The reason for Evans’ worries? Despite the assurances of company executives that the special cans will only be sold at retailers whose customers are 21 years and older, the FTC believes the promotion may encourage underage and binge drinking on college campuses. As a result, the FTC is recommending that Anheuser-Busch drop the promotion.

It might seem odd that federal regulators would deign to intrude upon what would appear to be a legitimate marketing strategy, but it’s not the first time the move has been made. In the late 1990s, Congress placed considerable pressure on R.J. Reynolds to discontinue the marketing of its “Joe Camel” mascot on the grounds that it targeted young people. The tobacco company complied in July 1997.

Regardless of where you fall on these issues, both controversies shed light on the fine line that sometimes falls between legitimate business practices and unethical marketing behavior. Even the best intentioned of companies can find themselves making questionable marketing decisions if they rush into a marketing promotion without taking the time to consider all of the ramifications.

In an effort to reinforce the importance of ethical marketing practices, the American Marketing Association has created a Statement of Ethics to serve as best practices for its members. The statement outlines a number of “ethical values,” including honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency and citizenship. The core responsibility of marketers, according to the statement? Do no harm.

“This means consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions by embodying high ethical standards and adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we make,” the statement explains.

Some, unconvinced that the marketing industry is able to police itself, argue for increased government intrusion into branding practices.

“Are marketers really concerned with the welfare of their customers, or are they more concerned about the ‘bottom line’ of the organization they represent?” asks James Stephenson in an article posted on Ezinearticles.com. “A change is coming, and has already started, in how consumers and organizations must view the marketing profession; a more ‘holistic’ approach towards customers is required. In that regard, companies must consider all aspects of their relationship with the consumers, not just their own goals.”

Failure to do so could result in increased government regulation, fears Stephenson.

While some welcome the idea of federal intrusion, others despise it. Some might question the ethics of a company trying to get consumers to eat frozen pizza instead of fruit for breakfast. Others would instead argue that any such marketing is fair game and if consumers choose to chow down on pepperoni instead of bananas as they watch the morning news, then, well, it’s their own doggone fault.

As noted above, it is sometimes a thin line.

We at corecubed are committed to abiding by the highest ethical standards while at the same time maximizing the return-on-investment for all your marketing endeavors. Our commitment to excellence has won us the respect of innovative companies in the health care, education and construction industries, as well as several other business verticals. To learn more, give us a call!

Your Web site should be more than just an information repository about your company and the services it provides. Information on the Internet is not meant to just flow one way. The site can and should provide the user with important information, but it can also be a tool by which they submit information to help  you in your marketing efforts.

In other words, if your Web site can get the prospective client to willingly fork over contact information – name, company, e-mail, phone number, etc. – then you have a potential new lead. This can be done through a variety of methods, whether for obtaining a free white paper, or asking getting email addresses to sign up for an eNewsletter. The key is that the user does it of his own volition.

So what’s the key? How can you turn your Web site into a lead generating machine?

It helps to remember the following:

1) Site traffic and leads are NOT the same thing. Your site can get 5 million hits a day, but if you’re not obtaining contact info, you’re not obtaining leads. Your site should have some mechanism built in where the users are prompted to input their information into a form, or its all for naught. Brandon Cornett, a writer for ISEdb.com, puts it this way.

“Let’s imagine you have a lemonade stand beside a busy highway,” he writes in an article for ISEdb.com. “But your stand is located on a narrow shoulder of the road where there’s not enough room for cars to pull over. All day long, cars whiz by you at 45 miles per hour, but nobody stops. You have an endless supply of traffic, but your lemonade stand is a failure because nobody stops.”

“If your Web site has plenty of traffic but no form of lead generation, then most of your traffic will pass right by … like those cars passing the lemonade stand.”
2) Not all leads are good leads. For every five people who give you their phone number, there’s a good bet that only one of them are worthwhile, legitimate leads. It’s important to be able to identify the diamonds in the rough before throwing “the rough” by the wayside.

Don’t waste time following up on leads that obviously aren’t feasible. If you only serve your local community, then it’s probably not a good idea to spend money pursuing a customer in Beijing.

Know who your customer base is, and take time to review each lead and determine how it fits into that profile before pursuing it.

3) Make your site educational, not just advertorial. People aren’t going to fork over their e-mail address if they think you’re just going to pelt them with advertisements. You have to provide value. Free online publications, such as white papers, case studies, e-books and other materials work really well.

“Don’t just sell – educate,” writes Bob DeStefano in an article for Industrial Distribution. “Compliment your product and service information with valuable educational information that helps your customers do their jobs better. Pack your site with ‘how to’ articles, best practices guides, training videos and other educational content. This will turn your Web site into more of a resource center that your customers and prospects will trust and visit on a regular basis.”

The key is that your site visitors know that this information comes at a price: their contact info.
corecubed is really great at helping clients win new leads via business Web sites. Call us or email us today to find out how!

Don’t try to tell that to David Wong, though.

Wong, along with his wife, runs a private dental practice based in Tulsa, Okla. According to a separate The Wall Street Journal article, Wong has seen a 10 percent decline in patients since the recession began. As patients lose jobs and tighten the belt, some expenses have to be eliminated, so in the battle between paying the electric bill and paying for a regular dental checkup, consumers often tell teeth to take a hike.

Unfortunately, consumers likely view all preventive health care in a similar light. Just because care is preventive doesn’t mean it should be neglected in a bad economy. That regular colonoscopy, cholesterol test or pap smear should never be considered an acceptable casualty of the personal budget war. Yet this is the reaction Wong sees as patients fail to show up for appointments.

Very well then, business is slow for everyone in a recession. What should Wong do about it? More specifically, how should this affect Wong’s marketing program?

Click here to view a video on the role of marketing in a recession.

Most entrepreneurs and service providers in Wong’s position face two choices when it comes to marketing. The first – and most common –is to cut the marketing budget. It makes sense, after all. When you have less income coming in, it’s best to cut expenses where you can and marketing is the easiest function to slash without affecting day-to-day business operations. Or so it seems.

The other option is the choice Wong ultimately decided to make: redouble your marketing efforts.

According to the article, Wong “has upped his advertising, taking advantage of low newspaper and broadcast rates, and now sends e-mail reminders to customers on top of traditional mailed postcards. He is even on Twitter, aiming to connect with customers as ‘not just the guy in a white coat with the drill in his hand.’”

“It’s a lot of hard work,” the article quotes Wong as saying. “You can’t go to the office and just be a dentist anymore; you have to go to the office and be a dentist and CEO.”

Wong understands this: In a recession, when money is tight and consumers are making tough choices, marketing is more important than ever before. As a business owner, you have a great opportunity when others are cutting marketing to get in front of your target audience and show the consumer why your services deserve their dollars. Customers who may have been in the bag when the economy is riding high suddenly need some extra convincing. They need to hear your message. That’s where marketing comes in.

In an interview with BNET, Dr. Gary Lilien, author of “Turning adversity into advantage: Does proactive marketing during a recession pay off?” a report by Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, pointed to three factors that should be considered before determining whether a marketing endeavor is worth the expense:

• Do you already have a marketing infrastructure in place? If not, it’s going to be difficult in this economy to launch a brand new marketing arm from scratch.

• Does your company have “the guts” to throw down the marketing dollars during a recession?

• Does your company have the budget to spend the money without damaging normal business operations?

“Companies that have been looking at marketing as an investment, and not an expense, and have been running their business through customer knowledge are the ones that are going to come out of this [recession] really, really well,” the article quotes Lilien as saying.

It’s important as well to make certain that your marketing efforts are reaching consumers through venues that they frequent. It’s pointless to spend money on distributing a message that no one will ever see. That’s why Wong’s strategy is a good one: he uses a variety of media, including the traditional as well as e-mail and social media. Mixing it up makes it more likely to reach both an older market as well as younger consumers.

Whether the economy is on track for a full recovery or a double-dipper recession, don’t forsake your marketing efforts. If expenses have to be cut, choose – but choose wisely. If you abandon your marketing efforts completely, you may soon find that your revenue is going the way of the stock market last November. corecubed can help. We have strategic marketing services that can fit any budget.

Just ask PepsiCo, the owner of the popular “Gatorade” line of drinks. Gatorade first hit the scene in 1965, when Ray Graves, coach of the University of Florida’s Gators football team, asked some medical researchers to come up with a thirst quenching drink to help his team perform better at games. The result was Gatorade – named after the team – and it became an instant phenomenon when the Gators enjoyed their first Orange Bowl win in 1967.

The drink was popular among sporting enthusiasts, outdoorsmen, gym trainers and others engaged in a healthy, active lifestyle. The brand became synonymous with athletic excellence. In 1992 Gatorade used basketball legend Michael Jordan in a good example of their original branding. Powerful, fresh and enviable results came from drinking Gatorade.

Unexpectedly in early 2009, however, all of that changed as PepsiCo announced a drastic rebranding of its Gatorade product line. According to this fact sheet obtained from the company’s Web site, Gatorade changed the names and logos of many of its products. “Gatorade” became known as “Gatorade G.” “Gatorade AM” was changed to “Shine On.” “X-Factor” became “Be Tough.” “Fierce” became “Bring It.” “No Excuses” became “Rain.”

The old logo is gone. The word “Gatorade” is virtually nonexistent on the labels, now replaced with a large “G.” It is possible that one not aware of the rebranding could pass over the drinks at a gas station in the mistaken impression that the store no longer stocked Gatorade.

The new “branding” is evident when looking at the new commercials for the new Gatorade, simply called G. Now I ask, “Why would a company with decades and fortunes invested in building a brand suddenly ditch that brand for something completely new and completely unestablished?”

Sarah O’Leary, author of the soon to be published book BRANDWASHED: What’s Wrong with Marketing and How We Can Fix it, is one of the experts befuddled by Gatorade’s actions.

“In an industry where experts have evangelized ‘brand equity’ since the dawn of the ad man, the loss of Gatorade falls well outside of logic,” O’Leary writes in a recent column for the Huffington Post. “Just about everyone in the free (and many in the less than free) world know the name Gatorade. The brand’s level of unaided, feel good awareness is the stuff we marketers dream about. And yet, faced with sagging sales, the choice was made to ditch the brand that was over 40 years in the perfecting. In essence, the Kleenex of sports beverages had changed its name to facial tissue.” Or just plain F.

O’Leary is correct about Gatorade’s sagging sales. Sales of Gatorade products have been on the decline since the third quarter of 2007.

The rebranding seems to have done little to help Gatorade. Lukovitz points out that in the first quarter of 2009, Gatorade’s sales volume plummeted 13.7 percent. At the same time, PowerAde, Coca-Cola’s less expensive sports drink, enjoyed an increase of 23.6 in sales volume.

Could it be that Gatorade turned its back on over 40 years of history for nothing?

“Some industry experts have speculated that a much-streamlined design that visually emphasizes the ‘G’, which debuted in January, has also hurt Gatorade’s sales by making the brand unrecognizable on shelves,” writes Lukovitz. “However, PepsiCo executives have said that the designs have been well received by the target audience.”

Maybe. But I doubt it. If Coca-Cola suddenly changed its name to C, it’s a safe bet that sales would go down as the brand was not recognized and the consumer did not have that brand response that is so powerful.

Literally millions of dollars and years of painstaking effort go into building a brand that’s wedged into the minds of every American.
The power of a brand is simply that. If I changed my name to M would you still be reading this blog? We at corecubed understand the power of branding and will do all we can to reinforce that power with our clients. I promise!

No company wants word of its financial woes to reach customers’ ears, yet that’s the situation Six Flags Inc. found itself in last month when it filed for bankruptcy in a Wilmington, Del., court. The New York-based owner of 20 theme parks throughout the United States is saddled with billions of dollars in debt and plans to undergo a four-to-six-month reorganization plan to regain financial stability.

That’s all well and good, but it’s also a serious PR debacle.

Forget about the creditors and investors. How would the customers react in such a situation? No one wants to purchase season tickets to an amusement park when they believe it may shutter its doors in the next three months. And who wants to ride a roller coaster through that stomach-churning loop when the steel safety bar – the only thing that holds your body safely in place – was installed, tested and purchased by a company they think is doing everything it can to trim expenses?

At least, that’s how some see it.

The truth is, these fears are based on a lot of misconceptions about bankruptcy. But – misconceptions or not – they could cause some families to stay home and watch “American Idol” reruns instead of hitting the water park.

Thus the problem for the PR gurus at Six Flags was clear: how could the company educate the public about what bankruptcy really means, allaying their fears and encouraging them to continue flocking to its coasters?

The answer: social media.

Social media Web sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others can be valuable mediums for any communication, including damage control messages. Six Flags recognized this and took definitive – and quite possibly unparalleled – measures to utilize social media to show how services at its 20 parks would remain unaffected by the bankruptcy.

Here are some steps the company took:

• Purchasing terms and phrases on various search engines that contain the word “bankruptcy,” and directing users searching those terms to a FAQ page that puts a positive spin on Six Flags.

• Hiring a social media marketing expert whose sole job is to troll sites like Facebook and MySpace, looking for negative conversation about Six Flags and responding to the criticism.

• Using “Mr. Six” – the dancing elderly man who appears in Six Flags’ television commercials – as a voice on Twitter to remind users of all the things they love about Six Flags. Fans of Six Flags can follow Mr. Six @TheRealMrSix.

Social media is still in its infancy, but already companies like Six Flags are taking advantage of its ability to reach their customer base – teens and young adults. Now, more than ever, it’s important to have a proactive social media marketing strategy. Need help? Call corecubed today. We have a very active social media component when appropriate in our strategic marketing. We can advise or implement.

“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone…
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion, Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone and everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give it time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”